It has become apparent in hospitals, clinics, laboratories, doctor's offices, and the like that door handles are cleaned quite irregularly only and, therefore, present a constant source of contamination, germs, bacteria, and the like. Specifically, it was found that when loading disinfecting apparatus, washers, sterilizing equipment, and the like the handle of the apparatus becomes contaminated and on removal of the disinfected, asepticized, or sterilized articles germs are transmitted from the door handle by the hands of the user to the disinfected articles. To avoid such problems, so far the handle had to be decontaminated manually prior to each removal from the disinfecting apparatus and, as experience tells us, often that was not done. It is also known to overcome the above mentioned difficulty by providing a door without a handle and opening or closing it by levers which are foot-operated. Yet the corrresponding structures are expensive and they do not prevent the operator from touching, almost automatically, the outside of the door which usually is contaminated.